LETTER: Saanich mayor needs reality check Cadboro-Gyro Park claim

In response to your article where Mayor Frank Leonard stated: “I’ve been wanting to upgrade that park for 28 years, and always run into neighbourhood opposition.”

For Mayor Leonard to cloak himself as the sole champion of improved accessibility is just a cheap election ploy, given there is no opposition to that principle – it is like motherhood.

The issue is whether four-metre wide black-topped roads are the answer, or, whether 1.5-metre, greener, accessibility friendly surfacing would be preferred by the people being served – namely those with accessibility problems – is the answer.

They too like to go to a park to get away from urbanization. But, no one has asked them. Saanich decided for them that they want a black-topped path and that a four-metre wide black-topped road (wider than the Galloping Goose Regional Trail) is even better than a path.

Park user interviews and a Gyro Park Stakeholders workshop held in March 2013 have shown very broad support for preserving the natural values of Cadboro-Gyro Park.

Improved accessibility can be achieved without violating this shared value, and can even be shared by people with accessibility issues. Saanich’s answer: pave paradise. Go figure.